Boy Necklaces and In Dire Need of Girl Time

The day before Back to School we went to Six Flags for our 4th annual time. I would have never dreamed of this event but for years our boys have gotten free tickets they earn by reading six hours in the Spring. And with Hubs being a teacher he gets a free ticket. And with lots of nice people working with Hubs they give him several free tickets for me and other folks. Last year was the only year of four that we had no other families with us and I was giving away free tickets near the entrance to Six Flags. People actually looked at me all suspicious--one even declined. The tickets expire that day--the day before school begins and it is typically less crowded than usual.

Anyway, a couple of Sundays ago we had my family of five, another Dad, and FIVE other boys with us. All jammed into one Suburban because we like to pay the extra $$ and park real close so that we can easily get back to the vehicle and the cooler for a picnic.

I do not do any scary rides and neither does my 8 year old so we are a team and go off on our own. Then we meet up for lunch. And then we walked around together for a little bit before I took off on my own again with Youngest. At that time it occurred to me that I was walking around Six Flags with 10 males. And it even became apparent to me that enough is enough and I really need to devote some time to me. And then on the way home I sat really close to the window because boys smell after they play.

I announced to the Hubs that I was taking some time for me the next weekend. I wanted to see Julie and Julia, which I had just finished reading. The author writes sentences that are really really long like usually 40 words long and I really like that. He said I should. "Or, get a manicure", I said. He said I should.

But it didn't happen because the next weekend I had all sorts of errands to do as usual which involved buying and making food. And cleaning stuff at home. And cleaning more stuff at home with Hubs because he is a clean fanatic and wanted to clean out closets and if I am not there he will throw stuff out. In the trash bag near one closet I found miscellaneous papers and office supplies including a legal pad with scribbles on the pages, but about ten pages in I saw he had written me an unfinished love letter a few years ago and it was four pages long and those things are pretty valuable since my Love Language is words.

I also ended up making necklaces for the boys as seen in the three pictures below. Well, I still plan on having some time for myself, which I'm thinking now instead of 2 hours for a movie might need to be a Full Day, but I don't think it will happen this weekend. Maybe over Labor Day weekend. Because after that baseball season starts.
(plain brown and white for Oldest with no dangling doodads)

(black cord necklace is for Youngest and has a fosselized shark tooth on it found this summer by Hubs on Tybee Island near Savannah)

(the white shark tooth necklace is actually the Middle Son's 1st necklace bought on an island vacation when he was three but it had been broken for years and I restrung it and added some brown and red and silver beads)

A Spontaneous Trip To See the Parthenon and How We Ended Up As Parents Who Rock

No, not the Parthenon in Greece, this one is just four hours away. In Nashville. A couple of weekends ago we decided on the spur of the moment to take the boys for a night to Tennesse to watch a college baseball game and just do a little getaway. The idea wasn't received very enthusiastically. The kids' Spring Break was just starting and they wanted to play with friends. "We wanted to go to the skatepark here", they grumbled. My youngest said, "How many stars does the hotel have?" I cracked up at that and asked where he heard that. On a Priceline TV commercial I was told.

Anyway, I ignored their protests or made some comment about my needs and they got on board. I made reservations at the Hampton Inn by Vanderbilt University and we made it just in the nick of time to check in and then walk through Vanderbilt University to their baseball stadium. Last year and the year before my husband and I did this very same thing alone (we find someone to watch the boys for us about once every two years and no I am not exaggerating).

We arrive and see the stadium is only half full and the game is just starting. We get to the ticket booth and they are SOLD OUT. What? This has never happened before. We were shocked. The boys stared at us like we were Clark and Ellen Griswald. I only felt a little better after I saw many others arriving and complaining about this situation too. No, they would not let us in even at half-time. We noticed a lot of Boy Scouts in attendance and then The Husband sees a older Scout man with a wad of tickets in his hand. Yep, he had a ton--I think the scouts bought the entire outfield. So we were able to buy 5 tickets and redeem ourselves to our children. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed ourselves. Actually an hour later there were complaints of being bored but they were ignored.

I used to travel to Nasville occasionally for business. This was 13 years ago before kids. I would stay at a hotel right across from the Parthenon. It is spectacular all lit up at night. Sort of more spectacular than during the day. But I did finally get to visit it the next day. It was built almost 100 years ago. Before this structure it was a temporary structure built for Tennessee's 1897 Centennial Exposition. I love learning these historical details and seeing photos of how cities once looked. You know the ones that show old buildings and homes and businesses on a certain street and then seeing the same street with the newer (uglier) buildings.

Our two oldest sons brought along their skateboards on our one-night spontaneous getaway in case we found a good opportunity to use them. They didn’t use them much while in Nashville other than the hotel parking lot. On Sunday after visiting the Parthenon we headed back home. As we were approaching Chattanooga I suggested that we stop somewhere for lunch. There was an exit near downtown that seemed right so we pulled off. What was right next to the highway? A skate park. There was cheering from the back of the vehicle.

We registered the boys (signed away our rights in case they crashed their bodies like those characters on the skateboard video games) and then headed down the street to the Subway to bring back lunch goodies. We ended up hanging out for about three hours. The weather was really nice. I took a bunch of photos and our youngest son who doesn’t skate took even more pictures. Well, he once skateboarded into a "bowl" after his brother told him to and he fell down and got turned off from falling. He told us he wants to be his brothers’ skate action photographer. For real as his career.

So he then took a bunch of photos. I assumed that later that we’d have to delete all of his. Wrong. It was my photos that we had to delete. So here are two that the family Skateboard Photographer took. It was nice to end the weekend as being really cool parents.